Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-04-22
THE INSTITUTE.
The Interesting Session OF
Yesterday.
SUPT. HOITT PRESENT
He Declares Himself as Unquali-
fiedly in Favor of State
Text Books.

The Teachers Institute met esterda
morning and as usual the exercises wer
interesting and full of instruct tion
those present.
"In the grammar section Professc
Henry Ludlam was the first speaker
and devoted the time to teaching "Mod
ulations of the Voice." Quality Q
voice is the kind of voice; ir comes fror
the heart and goes TO the heart. Th
quality depends upon the muscles use'
in producing it. Teachers and student
should take breathing exercises to de
velop the organs of speech. Few, per
haps, realize the inspiration in their owl
voice when properly trained. Pure voice
is divided into simple and oratund; i'm
pure into pectoral, cultural, aspirated
and falsetto. The professor beau tifully
illustrated these various tones with selec
tions from Hamlet, Merchant Of Venice
and others. Pitch relates to high end
low voice, and the voice should fit the
language in regard TO this quality
Force ia not obtained always by rantine
or shouting; this can frequently be
acquired by position or more earnest
tone. Time is one of the modulatiors
hardest to manage, and in handling it is
a great art. He illustrated the use oi
the upward and downward slids by drill
and black board exercises. II scholars
learn to command the modulations Of
the voice they will soon learn to be good
readers and good speakers.
After recess A. w. Plummer read a
paper on physiology. He stated that
q mare smattering was not sufficient, but
children should be thoroughly versed in
all the principles of the subject He
would begin with the framework, taking
up then tee muscles and skin. Much
time should be spent on the stomach and
other digestive organs. Then the heart,
the organs of circulation and respiration,
should be taught, as here originate the
principal diseases of the body. By this
time the pupil is ready to comprehend
the special senses. Teach the preserva-
tion and restitution of health. Empha
els should be put upon the subjec: of
narcotic and alcoholic poisons. Never,
in this, assign lesson until the scholar
has been prepared for it by oral drill. A
textbook answer should never be given.
Let the student answer from self,
+. H. Clark's address on Literature"
was the first subject treated in this Sec
tion. He argued that the specific study
of literature must be advanced work, as
it required knowledge of word deriva.
tion, thorough understanding OF gram
Hs,l nxvtn live,
vocabulary. He thought great deal
could be done in the way of supplement
tary reading toward preparing students
for this work in the lower grades. The
school library must be the medium of
educating students in this, and therefore
it should require considerable attent tion,
both in selection and in other arrange
ments OF the books upon the shelves.
INTERMEDIATE SECTION.
james B. Finch spoke on the subject
of Language" aud how to teach it.
He believed the main purpose of this
subject to be to awaken thought. Those
niceties upon which grammarians dis
agree should never be introduced. He
thought the work could be done better
with chalk than with text. books. The
first step should be to train class in the
formA tioa of sentences. His method is
to write simple sentences, explaining
their formation from the beginning.
No scholar should be permitted to miss
a lesson unnecessarily. He believed
that pupils could learn proper Ian.
guage by listening to the teacher.
They must be taught to forn sentences,
first orally and then written. Neatness,
punctuation and capitalization can be
taught in connection with this subject.
At the close OF his discourse many teach
ers expressed the result Of their expert.
ence and observation on this subject.
After recess M. G. Bettinger, Of this
city, discussed the subject of "Spellipg." I"
An animated discussion followed upon
the relative merits of oral and written
exercises, the prevailing sentiment being
in favor of written work.
Superintendent G. L. Meredith then
spoke on geography. and explained the
use of the sand.tray and the powers of
modelling in putty. He represented q
highly creditable relief map of South
America and told the process by which
it could be prepared.
PRIMARY SECTION.
After roll.call "Division for Children
was taken up by Superintendent Mere.
dith. He said that now it was consid.
cred best to teach ], 1, /, etc., when
teaching l, 2, 3. He saw no reason why
division should be difficult to teach.
Although long division is one of the
hardest subjects of arithmetic. he saw
no reason why it could moi
be readily understood by the child
unless too hard numbers were taken
This subject should be taught with mul
tiplication. The reason why some peo-
pie do not care to use the CRUDE method
ia usually that they do not understand
il we'll. He closed with this remark
"Please remember this if nothing else
Children do not come to school to see
what YOU can do; let them do for them
selves"
MissCarrie Bruere then took up the sub
iect of Language" She gave some very
novel plans for teaching composition te
this grade, and showed how by means
q story she would teach the phonlos
Willie burns his finger; he says: "Oh
oh, OH" and then when il begins t
ache, "Ow, Ow, Owl" Ris mothe
kisses it with "sh, sh, SD, ana DioW
it with "wh, wb, VIII, and Willli
winds up with an IN, n, n" This plan
she thought, would SO impress To
sounds upon the child's mind that h
would never forget them.
After recess, the discussion on teacl
ing diacriticals was again brought up
Professor Freisner and Superintendent
Meredeth appearing for, and Mr.. Bra
and Mrs. Hughes against such instru
tion in this grade. Of course neitht
party was able to convince the 9TH
that they were wrong, and the argumei
kept up till Professor Ludlam bega
the instruction on teaching elocution
primary scholars. He advised breat
ing exercises, but thought care shou
be exercised that this was not overdon
A pupil should be drilled in Fur
sweet tone. He laid particul
stress on the necessity for Il